“I’m in my mid fifties. What work I have now is hard, back breaking, physical labor outdoors in the cold for $12 per hour…my back hurts so bad I can’t…sleep.” —Oh woe is me, right? You’re here, saying you have a job paying almost DOUBLE minimum wage and asking for the government to pay you more UI? That’s ridiculous!

“Am I supposed to spend the rest of my life doing hard labor and living in poverty until I drop dead?” —If that’s what it takes and if that’s all you can find, yes! Why? Because you didn’t plan for the future. You didn’t think that there might be a point where you need to support yourself for a few years without government assistance or a job. Now you’re paying the cost of not saving enough money.

Don’t forget, you can always ask your friend if you can stay and pay him little bit of rent when he comes back.

No, I wouldn’t assume you to bunk in the same bed with someone you have no romantic interest in, but isn’t sleeping on a blowup air mattress or inside a sleeping bag, or even (if necessary) on blankets on the floor preferable to not knowing where you’re going to sleep the next day? It’s not comfy, but it would be convenient since it’d cost both of you less money to rent and you’d both be secure in housing until the situation changes.

“…we should just settle for a $9 per hour job… You could not even afford a room and transportation on that job. You would be homeless like so many other working homeless now.” —ARE YOU KIDDING ME?! Have you ever tried living on $5.25/hr the last 10 years? The last 20? Whole communities are living on less than $9/hr, such as the community I come from. One of the best jobs in my hometown paid $7.25/hr with a possible 5% increase every year, if you qualified. My friend in my hometown is working for $9/hr at a liquor store, driving an hour each way from home, living with his girlfriend and her son. He doesn’t have internet or cable/satellite, or home phone service and lives in a trailer. But he can afford food and rent and transportation and utilities and such. He’s not homeless. If someone has to bunk with 3 or 4 other people to make living on $9/hr work, then that’s what they have to do.

You’re 100% correct, you don’t have to accept it or like it and no one wishes the worst for anyone, but the taxpayer doesn’t have an obligation to pay for you to have your own place either, especially since you have a job.

Get a clue, fakk2. . .
Are you not aware of the MASS import of foreign labor over the past 20 years. BS degree holders from India-China-Pakistan left and right while our leaders cry the need for Math and Science professionals to the public.

A 65,000 annual limit has fallen by the wayside to climb to hundreds of thousands of visas issued each year.

WHY ARE THEY ISSUEING THE VISAS DURING THIS RECESSION AT ALL ????

Don’t even get me started on the illegal immigration issue, I live in Houston and can’t even get a laborer’s job – they’d have to pay me legal minimum wage!

WasMiddleClass, you’re in CT ? High cost of EVERYTHING there.
[I grew up in Stamford…]

“I live in Houston” —Nice, I could meet you for coffee. Houston is a beautiful city, even if I did only live there for 6 months years ago.

I know about illegal immigration all too well considering we have an entire community of illegals in Louisiana, where I’m originally from. It upsets me to no end what we’re doing with immigrants and not protecting our borders and shoving the average American to the wayside. And why they’re issuing visas during a recession, no idea. But that is another topic altogether.

“was making about 50k per year with no credit card payments and my vehicle was paid for” —I’m assuming this means you had no debt. I don’t know if you have a wife and/or children, but let me ask, where is your savings? Someone working minimum wage for 30 years can put enough away during that time period to at least pay for 1 year’s living expenses. So, did you save any money during the last 30 years? And if so, assuming you were saving for retirement, was it put away in low-risk low-yield accounts so that it stays safe?

“I have been noticing 200% to 400% higher prices on most things” —Sadly, the prices of all are going up because the cost of doing business is going up. Corn for example: Due to ethanol subsidies, corn farmers aren’t making corn for food. This raises the price of what we eat. That raises the price of everything that takes corn to grow/make. Same with sugar and petroleum.

“What planet do you live on?” —I live on a planet where all things are possible if you strive for it and have a little bit of luck. Here’s an interesting article for you, not the best, but it’ll do: http://www.hoover.org/publications/policy-review/article/7139

“Do you realize 99ers started running out of benefits almost a year ago?” —No actually, I didn’t know that. How many 99ers were there in 2007?

“Do you realize many have been out of work for well over three years?” —So, how many were there in 2007?

“Do you realize most Americans live paycheck to paycheck?” —Yes, and is it everyone else’s fault they can’t manage money and save up for retirement or being out of work for an extended period of time?

Explain to me why under the last Republican administration did 100% of the income growth in America go to the richest 10%, with 75% going to the elite 1%, while everyone else s income in the other 90% went DOWN?

Prices skyrocketed while most peoples income went down, but you say,

“is it everyone else’s fault they can’t manage money and save up for retirement or being out of work for an extended period of time?”

“Explain to me why under the last Republican administration did 100% of the income growth in America go to the richest 10%, with 75% going to the elite 1%, while everyone else s income in the other 90% went DOWN?” —No Idea. But I do know that if you’re in your mid-fifties, you could have saved at least $30,000 or more during the last 30 years. This goes for everyone your age, whether they’re working or not. Is it anyone else’s fault they can’t pay their rent because they have no savings even though they’re working with a $50k – $200k household income? No, it’s not. They should’ve planned ahead. They should’ve taken the advice from those who lived through the Great Depression. Those people knew how to make a penny last.

2.) It’s not ALL the fault of the unemployed, but it is partially their fault. I’ve posted elsewhere that I don’t condone what government has done over the past 10, 20, 100 years, and we need a massive change from what we have now. But that doesn’t excuse each person for their own choices in life either. You didn’t choose to be formerly unemployed, but it sounds like you didn’t plan for the future either. There’s millions of Americans whom don’t plan for the future, and I don’t feel sorry for them. Why? Because THEY didn’t plan for the future. For example: Is it my fault that someone doesn’t save for retirement? Is it my fault they get a mortgage they couldn’t afford? Is it my fault they decided to buy a big screen TV? No, it’s not. I didn’t make them buy the house, or the TV, or spend everything and get into debt. Although I don’t condone what’s happened on the bank’s side, no one but themselves signed that mortgage.

The Republicans say their plan to create jobs is cut money for jobs training, Head start, cops, heating assistance, social security, medicare, and everything that helps most Americans. But they will not touch military spending that is already three times more than the next highest country. They are already talking about more tax cuts, which I’m sure will benefit mostly the rich once again.

Our good jobs continue to get shipped to other countries for the benefit of the rich with the blessings of our government. More and more become homeless as plans are made to cut what little help is left from our government. The rich are getting a lot richer with the help of Washington as the rest of us are being sacrificed.

The problem is much larger than just what happened over the past few years.

“The problem is much larger than just what happened over the past few years.”" —Yes it is. That’s why we need a fair tax and a dramatic change in how we’re doing business. We can no longer afford to “go green” since it’s not paying us back. Less than 1% of all energy consumption in America is renewable energy. We need to stop subsidizing this and reinvest the monies elsewhere. We also need to stop regulating businesses so much. Some regulation is great, but over regulation reduces the job market. Let’s have a fair tax which reduces the cost of being in business. That will put hundreds of billions back into businesses to expand or hire more. Also, we’ll be able to compete with overseas jobs. And let’s reduce the cost of regulation to put another $500 billion back into business. And stop fighting wars we can’t afford and so on. We need to change a lot.

“What is a “fair tax”?" Here you go: http://www.opencongress.org/bill/112-h25/show

“but didn’t less regulation cause so many jobs to go overseas?” Funny thing, no it didn’t. The cost of complying with government regulation is 3 times the cost of paying government taxation for businesses nationwide. So, if we had a cost of $500 billion for complying with regulation instead of the $1 trillion it is now, and no payroll taxes, and instead a federal and state sales tax, then our companies would be EXTREMELY competitive to China or Mexico or almost anywhere else. [http://www.mgt.ncsu.edu/erm/index.php/articles/entry/regulatory-risk-cost/]

“You mean we should just depend on oil forever” —Not forever, but we shouldn’t invest so much right now on something that provides little to no return. Let’s have an economic boom before devoting so many resources to it.

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